"He did it! No-hitter for Jim Abbott!"
It feels like yesterday, but it was 27 years ago today that DeWayne Staats made that fateful call on MSG Network, cinching Jim Abbott's no-hitter in pinstripes against the Cleveland Indians on Sept. 4, 1993.
The highlight of his Yankees tenure for sure, as Abbott was 20-22 with a 4.45 ERA in 56 starts with the Yankees in 1993-94, and perhaps his career; Abbott never pitched in the postseason – his best chance came in 1994, when the strike wiped out the season for the first-place Yankees – or even made an All-Star team.
But there he was 27 years ago today, in an afternoon game on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend 1993, standing on the mound with only Carlos Baerga between him and immortality. Abbott's previous start, in Cleveland, had been a disaster – seven runs allowed over 3 2/3 innings – but on this day, despite issuing five walks, he got to Baerga with two outs in the ninth having not allowed an Indian past first base.
And then, on his 119th and final pitch, Abbott got Baerga to hit a grounder to short, where Randy Velarde scooped and fired to first for the last out of immortality.
Thanks to MLB rule changes knocking Andy Hawkins and Melido Perez off the books, it was officially the Yankees' eighth no-hitter, and first since Dave Righetti's July 4 no-no a decade earlier.
